BP1_2009101 -Educational_Blogging

Even though I have little experience in writing blogs, I have been aware of them and have seen them primarily while searching for solutions to computer repair questions. At the time I saw no real advantage other than some interaction between people. The more I am exposed to blogging, the more potential I can see in its uses.
On the educational front, I can see potential uses both as a teacher looking for solutions or ideas on how to teach a particular objective, as a method to share things that have worked and not worked so well, and as a sounding board for many issues teachers face on a day to day basis.
There also seems to be some very valid uses for students to use in the classroom that would be very beneficial to their learning process, and the ability of a teacher to provide diverse instruction to students. If you can combine blogs with other Web 2.0 tools that promote interaction between students, I can finally see that there may be something to this ?blog thing?. From the students? viewpoint, blogging brings into the classroom concepts and procedures that many of them feel as a natural part of their culture. The Internet has been around since they were born; blogging and other similar Web 2.0 tools have been a part of their lives since they have been communicating on computers or even cell phones.
Blogging also gives them an opportunity to gather feedback and ideas from peers not just in their classroom or neighborhood, but also from peers and others around the world. Many times this offers more valid criticism to them than coming from the teacher in the classroom.
I think that if we begin to use blogs in the classroom, that the teachers and students must also be aware and taught a validation to not only their work, but be aware that the blogs of others may or may not be what they seem. There must be some validation methods that the students must learn in order to fully be ready to use blogs as a truly educational tool.